tears of mercury | beastars

chapter 21. THE BEASTS' BON FESTIVAL IN THE SUMMER

𖤣𖥧.𖤣𖥧𓆏𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
━━━━━━━━━━━

The seasons are changing.

Every species are getting ready for the summer.

For some reason, everyone is always anxious but excited over summer. It could be the climate, but there's one thing that most of them here are excited about. And that is the big summer event (or so it seems).

In the drama club storehouse, Sanou stood in front with a paper in hand. (Name) stood atop the catwalk where the lights are, her arms on top of the railings as she lean in to listen, "The town's community is asking us to be in charge of the Meteor Festival's decorations again!" He smiled happily as he continued, "Hey, this is a great honor so of course we're going to do it, right?"

"This'll be another opportunity to spread our fame outside the school!"

"Yay!! We can go in the town again this summer!!"

The Meteor Festival. . .

"I'm all up for it!!"

It's. . .

"Yay!! Festivals are awesome!!"

Dinosaurs are one of the oldest ancestors. To the modern animals, they are a very divine existence. A long time ago, a meteor fell on earth, causing the Dinosaurs to go extinct. It's said that it was summer when the meteor fell.

The purpose of the meteor festival is to honor the spirits of the Dinosaurs that went extinct. But nowadays, that's just a front, for the most part.

What everyone is really looking forward to is the light ceremony on the final day. An imitation of a meteor is put in the center of the festival. Then couples will go to the mentioned piece, light a candle together and then place that candle by it.

Well, that's. . .

I don't know. . .

(Name)'s gaze drifted from the others below to the dusty beams of light filtering through the storehouse windows. Their voices blended together into a distant hum, excitement bouncing off the walls so easily it almost felt foreign to her.

Couples. Promises. Candles lit beneath an imitation of destruction.

The irony of it all was almost amusing.

A festival born from extinction had somehow become associated with love.

Her fingers tightened slightly around the railing.

Perhaps that was why animals clung so desperately to traditions like these. Life was fragile. Species disappeared. Feelings faded. Time moved forward whether anyone was ready or not.

Maybe love only felt meaningful to others because they knew, deep down, that everything was temporary.

For a brief moment, she wondered what it would feel like to stand beside someone beneath the artificial meteor.

Would she feel warmth? Would she feel nothing at all? Or would she simply become whoever that person wished her to be?

The thought unsettled her more than she expected.

"(Name)?"

She blinked slowly, as if the question itself had pulled her back from somewhere far deeper than thought, and for a brief, fragile moment, her attention returned to the voices below her—soft, overlapping, excited in a way that felt almost foreign against the stillness she had wrapped herself in.

"I'm listening," she answered eventually, though even she could hear the distance in her own voice, like it belonged to someone standing just slightly outside of her body rather than within it.